You belong here

As 2024 begins, I wanted to share with you an all-staff email that I sent out on belonging and how organizations can create cultures where everyone feels included and that they belong.

Dear friends,

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Happy New Year! As we welcome the New Year, I’m feeling grateful for the opportunity to continue collaborating with all of you. I’m anticipating an exciting year for PATH’s diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) work, and I’m thrilled to share our 2024 guiding theme and global priorities: You belong here.

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Belonging and bias

We all have biases—assumptions about others that act as shortcuts to how we see others, who we offer opportunities to, and even who we include in meetings or lunches. While these shortcuts are necessary for human survival, they can lead to exclusion, especially for marginalized or historically underrepresented groups. For example, we may make assumptions about women’s leadership styles, capabilities of those living with disabilities, and abilities of LGBTQ+ people.

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I remember early in my career, a particular company did not hire me because they thought that with my high-pitched voice, I would not be able to “fit in.”

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The biases we have, and those others have of us—conscious or unconscious—impact how we and others experience the workplace, available career advancement opportunities, and ultimately, our sense of belonging.

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A workplace that works for everyone

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Our diversity, equity, and inclusion efforts at PATH seek to identify these biases, level the playing field, and create a workplace that works for everyone. Among these efforts are PATH’s People Resource Groups (PRGs). PRGs are at the heart of creating belonging, connection, and community at PATH, and we would love to have you join.

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You belong here. It’s so simple yet so powerful.

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For many years, I felt I didn’t belong anywhere. “You belong here” is a phrase I really needed to hear and feel, even if I didn’t know it’s what I needed at the time. I hope you have heard and felt belonging many times, in many spaces, throughout your life. And I hope this year, we can work together to ensure PATH is a place where everyone feels they belong. It’s easy to say, “Everyone belongs at PATH.” The real challenge is making sure people truly feel they belong.?

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Belonging can mean different things to different people. For me, belonging is having permission to be yourself. It is dancing at the party like no one is watching.

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To belong is to be:

• Seen. To be accepted as a whole human—not just some parts of your identity, but the whole YOU. It is to be recognized for your accomplishments and to be invited in.
• Heard. To express your ideas, opinions, and voice freely without fear of judgement or retribution.
• Valued. To have your team appreciate your contributions to PATH’s mission of advancing global health equity.

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True belonging: Connected to others and to ourselves

The need to connect, to fit in, and be part of something is universal. It’s a human experience that we all yearn for. So is the need to be different, authentic, and uniquely ourselves. If you have ever worn a dress and seen someone else wearing the exact same dress, you know what I am talking about. In Atlas of the Heart, Brené Brown tells us that for true belonging to happen, we have to belong to ourselves as much as belong to others: “True belonging doesn’t require you to change who you are; it requires you to be who you are.”

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The enemy of inclusion and belonging is not necessarily exclusion—it is conformity, fitting in, and groupthink. Belonging is to know others, and to be known.

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And because belonging allows us to embrace our whole selves, it also enables us to perform at the highest levels—when we aren’t worrying about hiding, code-switching, or judgement, we are able to collaborate better, innovate more, and increase our impact.

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Belonging through storytelling

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There is no single definition of what it means to belong. I shared mine above, but yours might be different. This is why I want to create PATH’s shared understanding of belonging. And I need your help.

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To guide our work this year as we dive into the theme with intention, I invite you to share your story: What does belonging mean to you? What kinds of conditions or systems can help make you feel that you belong at PATH? Can you share a story about a time you felt you did or didn’t belong?

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Your feedback will inform and shape our DEI priorities for the year. With your input, we will build an organization that makes us all truly feel that we belong here.

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And please, don’t let this email be the last time you think about belonging. I encourage teams to hold conversations about belongingness, and I invite all managers and team leaders to make time and space for staff to share their stories with each other.

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You belong here,?

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Levis Nderitu?